The present invention relates to wireless communication systems and, in particular, to a system and method for over-the-air user zone assignments for wireless telephone systems.
Wireless communication networks which provide mobile telephone and other related services to customers across a broad frequency spectrum are well known. One example of a cellular telephone network having radio transmissions in the microwave band of between approximately 800 MHz and 2.2 GHz is shown in FIG. 1. The prior art cellular telephone network of FIG. 1 includes a mobile telephone switching center (MSC) 10 and a plurality of cell site transceivers 12A through 12C. The cellular transceivers transmit radio signals to and receive radio signals from one or more mobile units 14 that move about a cellular service area 16. A mobile unit 14 can be a wireless voice telephone or data receiver that can be permanently installed at a fixed location within a vehicle, or portably carried by a person. Each cellular transceiver 12 is able to broadcast and receive the radio signals within a geographic area 18, referred to as the cell site coverage area. Together the areas 18 comprise the entire cellular service area 16.
Telephone calls to a mobile unit 14 can originate from another mobile unit or a land-based telephone via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 20. This is accomplished by receiving a call request at the MSC 10. In turn, the MSC 10 instructs the central call processor 22 to begin call processing. The central call processor 22 transmits the signal to each of the cellular transceivers 12, causing the transceivers to transmit a page signal to the mobile unit 14.
The cellular service area 16 within which the mobile unit 14 can operate is referred to as the home area. For billing purposes, a mobile unit 14 is typically associated with a defined home area 16. Within the home area 16, calls and/or data can be placed to or received from the mobile unit 14 for a predetermined fee arrangement with the communication service provider. For areas outside of the home area 16 where cellular transceivers are present, voice and/or data transmissions are still possible to the mobile unit, however, additional fees are typically associated with such transmissions. These are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9croamingxe2x80x9d charges or out-of-network fees.
There are several drawbacks associated with having predefined home areas. For example, a user may live in a border region served by two adjacent carriers. In such case, approximately half of the user""s telephone transmissions may occur within one zone and half may occur in the other area, resulting in xe2x80x9croamingxe2x80x9d charges for half of the user""s telephone calls. To remedy this, the user may contract for services within both adjacent areas, however this may necessitate having two mobile units for a single user and, possibly, two service provider contracts. It would therefore be preferable if a user could define its own desired user area.
In addition, there are many areas 18 within mobile communication networks with under-utilized transmission bandwidth. Presently, there is no known method of dynamically making this bandwidth available to potential mobile communications users. To take advantage of the available bandwidth throughout a mobile communications network, it would, therefore, be desirable to offer such geographically defined regions to potential users of such services.
Alternatively, it would be desirable to allow users to request access to a mobile communications network at a location remote from their own user area. For example, while traveling, a businessperson could request mobile communication services in the city or region of travel. In response, the provider of the mobile communication services could offer the user geographic zone and pricing information to make use of available communication services. If more than one service provider was in the region, competing bids for such services could be provided. Thus, a service provider with more available bandwidth in the user requested region could likely provide a lower bid for the services desired. One advantage to such a system is that the user has flexibility in defining the desired user zone. Another advantage is that service providers can maximize network utilization and create additional revenue.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks associated with present wireless communication systems by providing a method and system for user-defined user zones.